Dacia

[Quintus.JC]

The Dacians are certainly an very interesting faction to play as, early on they face economical problems. use your dipolimat to get trade rights and sell map info to anyone you see. Military you have generally 3 direction for early expansion. West to the weak reblesettlement which is easy picking but very undeveloped. East into Thracia. or south into Macedonia. I decided to go for the middle option. Thracia haven't got very powerful armies and also has valueble sea trading ports. Militia Hoplite will rout once hit on the flanks or rare. opposition Falxmen should be hit by cavalry, don't bother chasing militia cavalry, they'll come to you after they ran out of ammo. Make alliance with both Scythia and Macedon then take Thrace. do not masscre the population. after taking 2 extra cities you'll have some money at least to develope your economy. try to keep your relation sweet with Scythia, you have no wish to fight them, their land is remote and it would take more than 5 years just for you to reach Campus Alanni. after Thrace take Byzantium, if it is held by the Macedonians than attack Thessalonia with the biggest army you could build. don't assult the city if there is enough Phalanx troops to hold you off, wait for reinforcement from south of Bylazora. after taking Thessalonica enslave the populations and move for Byzantium and Bylazora. try to fight the Macedonians in open fields instead of cities for obvious reasons. train Falxmen in masses. these trustwrothy guys are great advantage against all other level 2 troops. possiblely the most powerful troop you can train in large town settlement. your economy should be stable now. continue your friendly relation with Scythia and you can look elsewhere, eventually with Chosen swordsmen and Barbarian Noble Cavalry you could head confidently into the Balkans, or even Italy.

[Quintus.JC]

The Falxmen are a great advantage to the Dacians early on, use them to crush your enemies!

[coalition]

The Falxmen are a great advantage to the Dacians early on, use them to crush your enemies!

yeah totally considering their stats are similarly overpowered when you look at them, ahem "level 2 barracks". the only one tht comes close is probobly the swordsmen for gaul or teh spear warband for germany.

[The Wandering Scholar]

I haven't given Dacia much of a chance should I?

[Julius_Nepos]

I find Dacia a fascinating faction to play but I've had the same problems with it that I had with Hungary in M2TW. I tend to get overrun by multiple enemies before I'm able to secure myself financially. Using some strategies I read here, I steam rolled Thrace relatively easily and was, as a result able to secure some sea trade and even send an army to Chersoneos. Unfortunately this precipitated a 3-pronged war against Macedon, Scythia and Germania that I was simply unable to survive.

I've reproduced this same deleterious situation on several occasions, each time facing a multi-stack onslaught from some combination of the aforementioned factions. It really does illustrate how the AI factions treat the human player differently than there own kind. I've seen Dacia expand and last for long periods of time, usually being crushed by the Bruti when it's controlled by the AI, for example. At any rate I'm trying to decide on a more realistic way of surviving as Dacia. I've even thought of packing it in and moving to Kydonia, at least giving me a secure base of operations, and perhaps giving me a chance to secure Rhodes as well which would be a huge boost. It's even possible if I play my cards right I could secure Kydonia, Rhodes and Halicarnassus.

I don't know how wise such a move would be, at the least it'd be exciting. I just need to get out of the three-pronged vice grip that the traditional Dacian lands provide. I wonder if anyone else has tried this? There was a recent post on faction migrations, Seems like it might be an appropriate strategy here. Cheers!

[Good Ship Chuckle]

Mass migration will certainly add to the drama of the campaign, but of all the places to found your promised land...Kydonia? If you've got the guts, go ahead, just realize that Kydonia has around 1000 pop. Thats gonna drain fast when beginning a new empire. However, if you did secure Rhodes and Halicarnassus as well, then you might stand a better chance.
Kydonia is one of those cities that you capture early on, and let develop w/out too much pressure. Really an economic city, rather than a military powerhouse.

[Julius_Nepos]

yeah I'm thinking of Kyodnia more as a refuge. My biggest problem as Dacia is getting hammered by too many stacks and factions all at once. And I can't really seem to get an alliance with anyone. In M2TW I conquered Africa with Scotland so I'm sure victory is possible If a secure location can be found. Or more secure at any rate. The Thracians might be a better choice as defending cities, even with militia hoplites can be an easy sell, especially against cavalry armies like those that Scythia will send at you. At any rate Dacia shouldn't be impossible it's just not a faction I've ever used before.

It might also be possible to abandon Campus Iazyges and Porolissum and transfer to the Thracian realms, Campus Geatae (sp), Tylis and Byzantium to form a more defensible frontier. Given the absurd aggressiveness of the AI on hard/hard reducing the war fronts is helpful. I'll have to see how it works out.